2008 State of the Sox

July 10: Royals 4, White Sox 1

The White Sox finally discovered how to out-suck the Kansas City Royals.

They just had to wait long enough.

One defensive miscue led to Mark Buehrle's demise, and another added an extra degree of embarrassment as the Sox dropped their first to Kansas City all season.

Buehrle had been on the winning side of a pitcher's duel with Zack Greinke, in which the only run was provided by Jermaine Dye's 20th homer of the year.

When John Buck led off with a single to start the eighth, that itself wasn't a big deal.  Buehrle had battled through baserunners all night long, and just as he had done once before, Buehrle got a grounder that should've been a double play.  It glanced off his glove to Orlando Cabrera, who flipped to Alexei Ramirez to force out pinch-running Joey Gathright.

But Ramirez's throw to first went off the tip of Paul Konerko's glove as he tried to hold the bag, giving the Royals an extra baserunner and an extra one to work with.  Mike Aviles made the Sox pay when when he hammered a first pitch curveball past Joe Crede and into the left field corner to tie the game.

Octavio Dotel, who had been so good the night before, got Mark Grudzielanek to pop out.  But he'd falter, too, giving up a double to the center field wall to Jose Guillen to give the Royals the lead.

But they weren't done.  In came Boone Logan, and Mark Teahan greeted him with a 3-2 blast to the wall in right-center.  It looked to be a triple, but Ramirez hesitated on the relay throw, and Luis Silverio waved Teahan home.  Ramirez fired it to the plate, but it was to the first base side, and Teahan got his hand in before Pierzynski could dive back to the plate for the inside-the-park homer.

Joakim Soria finished the job, retiring the Sox 1-2-3 for the save.  The Sox only managed six hits, and although they got the leadoff hitter on base several times over the course of the evening with singles, they couldn't advance him.

Record: 53-38 | Box score | Play-by-play